Continental Commentary Series: Genesis 1-11 (CC)

by Claus Westermann

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 1994

Overview

Claus Westermann’s 3-volume commentary on Genesis stands as one of the most exhaustive treatments of the first book of the Bible available today. The first volume of Westermann’s commentary introduces readers to the first eleven chapters of Genesis. For each section of Scripture, Westermann translates the text, introduces the literary form and the setting in life, offers a detailed commentary, shows readers the purpose and thrust, and offers a detailed analysis of secondary literature—all with thoroughness, clarity, and fairness.

Contents

Top Highlights

“A consequence of this is that there can be no question of an ‘essence of man’ apart from existence as two sexes. Humanity exists in community, as one beside the other, and there can only be anything like humanity and human relations where the human species exists in twos.” (Page 160)

“In any case we must establish a complete and deliberate separation of creation and struggle as was the case before Enuma Elish.” (Page 31)

“On the contrary the genealogies form an independent genre which is very ancient and very significant, and which had its origin and fullest development among nomad tribes.” (Page 7)

“The meaning of ‘the bringing forth’ is primarily: ‘Let something which is within come out.’ The plants are in the earth and the earth lets them come forth.” (Page 125)

“The sentence in 1:1* is not the beginning of an account of creation, but a heading that takes in everything in the narrative in one single sentence—and it is much more than a mere heading. It speaks of the creation of heaven and earth in the same way as do the hymns of the praise of God. One could say that the formula which is predicated of God, ‘Creator of heaven and earth,’ has been reshaped into a verbal sentence. It has often been said that Gen 1 has echoes of a hymn or that as a whole it is very like the praise of God. The reason for this is that the first sentence itself is really a cry of praise.” (Page 94)

Praise for the Print Edition

Westermann’s commentary has the merit of taking a definite stand in the hermeneutical debate. In the tradition of Gunkel, it takes full advantage of the methods of form criticism and of the phenomenological study of religion. Again and again Westermann opens up dimensions of meaning which are not only relevant for theology but for human existence in the modern world.

—Bernhard W. Anderson, Journal of Biblical Literature

Product Details

• Title: Continental Commentary Series: Genesis 1-11
• Author: Claus Westermann
• Translator: John J. Scullion S. J.
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 1990
• Pages: 636

About Claus Westermann

Rev. Dr. Claus Westermann was an Old Testament scholar. He was born on October 7, 1909 in Berlin. Prof. Westermann taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1958 to 1978. Born to African missionaries, he finished his studies in 1933 he became a pastor. During his theological studies he started studying the Old Testament, and became particularly interested in the content of the Psalms.